St George and the Dragon@Basler Munster
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manchanegra
N 47° 33.370 E 007° 35.510
32T E 394060 N 5267932
Equestrian statue of St Georg fighting the Dragon in the façade of Basel Cathedral.
Waymark Code: WMCZ3G
Location: Basel Stadt, Switzerland
Date Posted: 10/28/2011
Views: 21
According to the Golden Legend the narrative episode of Saint George and the Dragon took place in a place he called "Silene," in Libya; the Golden Legend is the first to place this legend in Libya as a sufficiently exotic locale, where a dragon might be imagined. In the tenth-century Georgian narrative, the place is the fictional city of Lasia, and it is the godless Emperor who is Selinus.
The town had a pond, as large as a lake, where a plague-bearing dragon dwelled that envenomed all the countryside. To appease the dragon, the people of Silene used to feed it two sheep every day, and when the sheep failed, they fed it their children, chosen by lottery. It happened that the lot fell on the king's daughter, who is in some versions of the story called Sabra. The king, distraught with grief, told the people they could have all his gold and silver and half of his kingdom if his daughter were spared; the people refused. The daughter was sent out to the lake, decked out as a bride, to be fed to the dragon.
Saint George by chance rode past the lake. The princess, trembling, sought to send him away, but George vowed to remain. The dragon reared out of the lake while they were conversing. Saint George fortified himself with the Sign of the Cross, charged it on horseback with his lance and gave it a grievous wound. Then he called to the princess to throw him her girdle, and he put it around the dragon's neck. When she did so, the dragon followed the girl like a meek beast on a leash.
She and Saint George led the dragon back to the city of Silene, where it terrified the people at its approach. But Saint George called out to them, saying that if they consented to become Christians and be baptised, he would slay the dragon before them. The king and the people of Silene converted to Christianity, George slew the dragon, and the body was carted out of the city on four ox-carts. "Fifteen thousand men baptized, without women and children." On the site where the dragon died, the king built a church to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint George, and from its altar a spring arose whose waters cured all disease.
The Equestrian statue is located below the Georgsturm (George Tower) and depicts knight Georg fighting against a remarkably small dragon.
The statue dates from 1372 and is made of red sandstone.
From Wikipedia
Identity of Rider: Saint George of Lydda
Identity of Horse: unknown
Name of artist: unknown
Material: Stone
Unusual Features: Equestrian statue of a man fighting a dragon
Position: One Hoof Raised
Date of Dedication: Not listed
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